It's Ancient!
by MiathoL
Summary: Camp is wrapping up and Percy and Annabeth take sometime together to sit in a canoe in the middle of the lake, and Percy has a question regarding their unique skill set of reading Greek. Specifically the ancient type. Slight Percabeth. One-shot.


**A rewrite of an old drabble from a different account of mine. If by chance this sounds familiar, and you think I may be stealing a story, it's my own and I'm not. No worries **

Summer was coming to a close at Camp Half-Blood. The weather was at that comfortable end of summer, start of fall, and everyone was in a generally good mood.

But with the close of camp spawns many responsibilities for the older campers, and Percy and Annabeth have not been seeing as much of each other as they would like. Annabeth was dedicated to her duties, but Percy was bored by them. They had so much to do cleaning up for winter that it was almost like Chiron didn't want the pair spending time together.

Percy had enough. Without saying a word, he went down to the lake and pulled a canoe from the rack and placed it on the beach. He ran off to find Annabeth.

He found her at the Pegasus stables, brushing manes. She must have been doing a good job because the pegasi seemed to know why Percy was there and they were all a chitter in his mind.

"Come on! Stop moving, I'm almost finished." Annabeth stood in front of the mare to calm her when she saw Percy.

"How are you finished with your work? It's only three o'clock!" Percy walked over to her and smiled.

"Good to see you too. It's only been what, a week?" Annabeth frowned a little.

"We've been busy. There's a lot to do." That was true. It takes a camp to close one. Cabins must be cleaned, lava drained, weapons stored, and all sorts of tedious work.

"Well we're taking the afternoon off. Grab your stuff, let's go. Meet me at the lake in ten." Before she could protest, Percy hopped off the stall door he was sitting on and walked away. Behind him, Annabeth rolled her eyes and threw the brush down. It had been a while since they were alone, and she was pretty far ahead. Why not?

Like the punctual daughter of Athena she is, Annabeth was at the lake in exactly ten minutes where she found Percy scrubbing canoes, one of his jobs. He saw her and ushered her into the canoe set aside. She placed her book and a jacket in the middle and sat on the bow.

"Ready?" Percy took his place in the stern and pushed them out. Percy gently lulled the canoe to the middle of the lake.

Annabeth turned around and the couple started talking. After they were all caught up, and it was made clear they truly were spending the whole afternoon in the center of the lake, Annabeth pulled out her fat book and opened to her marked page.

Percy didn't mind. In fact, he liked watching her read. Her concentration face was adorable.

Percy did mind, however, reading.

It was hard. Being dyslexic for all things English was an absolute deal breaker. Being only able to read ancient Greek was severely limiting. Where Annabeth keeps finding books, he'll never know.

Maybe Percy'd read more if he was hardwired for another language. Something practical. On the B-side, there's more important things to do than waste away valuable hours in a book.

Then there's Chiron. He makes everyone take formal classes outside of weapons training. Obviously all demigods must be literate.

But half-bloods are only useful for anything ancient. Language evolves and changes. Would it be similar enough that demigods could read modern greek?

"Can we read Greek?" Annabeth looked up from her book and sarcastically cocked her head.

"Really?"

"Yeah, like modern greek. Everything around us is literally ancient, so…?" She seemed to ponder this a moment.

"I'm not sure. I can't say I've ever tried, I guess I never had a reason to go testing it. It might be interesting to look into. But authors these days; nothing worth reading anyway."

"Do you think we could?" She looked to the sky, briefly in thought.

"I'm not sure. The gods peaked, I guess, in ancient times. Millennia ago, that was the language, and if it is passed through the bloodline, the first demigod would have it In a time where everyone read and spoke the same thing, it is plausible we cannot read modern greek. But it also begs the question, how can we be hardwired for anything? I can understand the dyslexia, but language is learned-"

"Uh Annabeth, you're rambling." She stopped.

"Did any of that make sense?"

"Um, actually yeah." That's a first.

"Smarty pants." Annabeth smiled and reopened her book.

"I know."

**Did anyone else have problems that these kids can be born knowing how to read? Oh gaping plot holes, I will make you rue the day you were born!**

**Thoughts?**


End file.
